UN Official Hopes Yemen Peace Talks Return to Kuwait

BRUSSELS, Jan 19 (KUNA) — A top United Nations humanitarian aid official praised Thursday Kuwait’s efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Yemen and also appealed for more humanitarian aid to the war-stricken country. “Kuwait played a very significant role during the last round of talks. They housed the peace talks for months and we hope the same offer and support would be there,” Jamie McGoldrick, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, told Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, in an interview in Brussels. He hoped that the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, would be able to get back the sides to the table again, adding that “Kuwait could play that support role again.” McGoldrick said he is visiting a number of capitals such as Brussels, Amman, Riyadh and London to meet officials before the launch of appeal for more humanitarian aid for Yemen for next year.

He said the appeal will be launched in Geneva on 7th of February for about USD two billion to cover the humanitarian needs of the Yemeni people for one year. Last year, the UN had appealed for USD 1.8 billion for Yemen but only received 60 percent of the funding. The UN official said that over 10 million people out of a total population of 26 million in Yemen are in acute need of help and aid. Up to two million children under five are in very difficult circumstances and from those 400,000 children are acutely malnourished. “The situation this year is much more catastrophic,” he said and appealed to the donor community to assist the Yemeni people and also urged the international community to help the peace process back on track. He said “after two years of war nobody is winning, so we have to find a way to stop the war and build a peace process.” “We have to put humanity above politics. The Yemen crisis is not a very visible crisis like Syria and Iraq. So we have to compete hard,” he stressed. He noted that UN Special Envoy for Yemen has been very energetic and active in recent weeks visiting Riyadh, Muscat, Aden and he is planning to go to Sanaa again to meet the parties . “Hopefully he can regroup them back to Kuwait or some other location,” added McGoldrick who is Irish and also served in Nepal, Georgia. Tajikistan, Sierra Leone, West Bank and Pakistan. (end) nk.rk